Conflict
by MissBesanii
Summary: Some things never changed. Comashipping (Yaoi). Rated T for language.


Ash slumped to his knees beside Pikachu, scooping him up and holding him close, partly in shame, but mostly in disappointment.

He was sure he'd had it this time. He was so close!

"Serves you right for choosing the same team once again. You're so predictable."

He glared up and could only see his rival, glaring straight back down at him. Everywhere else was red, his mind was in overdrive from the exhaustion of fighting for so long, losing exhausted him with guilt, and now he was being baited?

If Pikachu hadn't have been in his arms...

He stood, coming nose to nose with Paul, and his even, cold stare was all the more intimidating up that close. Still, red pulsed everywhere, and being intimidated by Paul was not on the cards at that time.

Ash did not say anything, he could not afford to bite back when he'd said so many times how wrong it was to be so cruel to somebody. He just ground his teeth together, and a smirk ripped across Paul's face at the sound.

"Come on Ash, we should get your pokemon healed." Dawn quietly suggested, taking him by the shoulder.

Paul's mouth twitched. "Run along now."

A searing anger bubbled from within Ash, and escaped in the form of a growl, his teeth bared and clamped together to keep any unwanted words from being voiced. Dawn tugged on his shoulder, and he allowed himself to be towed away, barely able to contain himself.

"You don't have to be so rude, Paul. You won, be a gracious victor." Dawn snapped over her shoulder.

"I will when it becomes a hard earned win." He retorted, turning his back on them, and skulking off without another word.

When Dawn looked back, she could see Ash had tucked his face away under his cap, a sure sign that he was battling some demons in his mind. She stayed quiet a little while, her hand never leaving his shoulder, but her eyes shot to Brock, who sadly placed his hand onto Ash's other shoulder.

The night had drawn in, and Ash's team were resting in the back rooms of the pokemon centre while he lay wide away in the bottom bunk of the room the humans had rented. He could hear Brocks gentle snore that he'd become used to over the years, and Dawn's less familiar deep breaths. She was a rather restless sleeper, and every time he went to drift off, Dawn would shuffle loudly in her sleep and settle into a cooler patch of the bed.

Glancing at his pokedex, it was 4am.

He wasn't going to sleep at all.

Giving up entirely, he slipped out of bed and pulled on his trainer, hoping Brock had the right ingredients to make some cocoa. His mother had always made him hot chocolate on sleepless nights. He would drink it outside so his skin became cool, but his core was happily warm, and the temperature difference would make him sleepy.

"Damnit..." He hissed. Out of milk. Brock usually did a supply trip on a thursday, and it was only 4am on a thursday.

He would just have to hope that the cool air would still do the trick.

Slipping down the stairs, he caught sight of a vending machine for soups and other heated liquids. He wandered over, and to his delight, the hot chocolate option was lit up and available.

He rooted through his pockets.

It really wasn't his lucky day. He was just a tiny bit short of the allocated amount.

He really wanted cocoa.

Slamming his fist onto the machine and pressing his forehead against it too, he muttered repeatedly about how things weren't fair.

"Not sure it wants to talk to you, to be honest."

Ash shot his eyes open and whipped around to see who was talking to him, stumbling backwards in his tired state to lean against the vendor he had just attacked.

"Paul." He croaked.

One purple eyebrow rose, and as usual, the eyes beneath it spoke louder than words. Annoyance, amusement, and something else that nobody could really describe, but at the same time, everybody understood perfectly.

"Is speaking to inanimate objects a favourite past-time, for you?" He asked quietly, his tone quite obviously mocking Ash.

"I-er-" was all that Ash managed to spew out.

"It's obviously easier for you to speak to the machine. I'll leave you to it." Paul smirked, turning back toward the stairs.

"No." Ash barked.

They both froze on their spots, unsure of the tone in Ash's demand.

"No?"

"No... I don't speak to vending machines." Ash muttered sheepishly, cringing inwardly at how much of an easy target he was making of himself.

However, Paul only chuckled as he turned back to look at his rival. "Right."

Slightly embarrassed by his outburst, Ash's hand wound itself into the back of his hair, as was usual for Ash's behaviour. "Can you not sleep, either?"

Paul shook his head. "I train until late, and sleep through most of the morning."

Ash nodded, not surprised by this revelation. If anybody was going to be nocturnal, he would have betted on Paul.

Having been lost in thought, he'd missed that Paul had closed in on him, just like earlier in the day. Only this time, a hand brushed past Ash's shoulder, causing him to flinch.

Why was he so close? There wasn't anybody around to stop him, and if Paul said anything out of line, he probably wouldn't be able to control himself in such close proximity to him.

But Paul said nothing, the only sound was a 'chink!' just behind the ear Paul had brushed by.

"If you needed a drink, you only had to ask." Paul muttered, jabbing at a button behind Ash, it only made him wince once more.

Ash's throat tightened up, drying his mouth up completely and rendering him speechless. He just wanted to distance himself from Paul, he didn't want to fight.

But apparently, neither did Paul.

Confused, Ash simply nodded.

A smirk played at Paul's lips, and his drew his arm back, revealing a plastic cup with a sleeve, steam lipping through the sipping gap in the lid. Ash took it quickly and nodded.

"Thanks." He just about managed to squeak, and he scurried off to the door.

What was that about? He wondered to himself, slumping against the pokemon centre wall and sliding to sit down on the floor.

Something wasn't right. Paul had never been civil with him before. He'd never expected him to be, and even though he had once wished they could have been friends, he'd come to accept that it was never going to happen.

So why was he clutching a hot beverage brought by the boy?

Ash had never been one for rational thinking, and the only thing he could come up with was maybe it was one of Paul's battle tactics. It was quickly dismissed though, Paul would never need to resort to such measures to win.

Paul always won.

"What are you doing down there?"

Once more, Ash flinched, succumbing to the skittish mess that he had clearly become. Paul seemed bemused by this characteristic, and was intent on abusing it to it's full potential.

"Thinking." Ash replied. "Why?"

Paul shrugged. "I'm going for a walk." He stated. However, it wasn't the sort of closed statement he would usually use, Ash couldn't help but notice the invitation in his tone.

"Can I come?"

"I don't see why not."


End file.
